“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands…(v.45) And if your foot cause you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame rather than having two feet…(v. 47) And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye rather than having two eyes…

These verses underline (in a very strong way) the need for us to deal radically with sin in our lives. As we are reading in Leviticus, God calls us to lives that are holy and set apart for Him. When sin is alive and well in our lives, it can’t help but separate us from God. Sin has an ugly way of clouding our relationship with the Lord. It’s like a giant pink elephant sitting in the room with us and God – it’s there, we both know it and see it, yet, somehow, we don’t wantto acknowledge it. It ends up compromising the depths we are able to go to with Him. Jesus is calling for a radical removal of anything in our lives that hinders our walk with Him.

Are your finding yourself doing things you shouldn’t be doing? Going places you shouldn’t be going? Seeing things that you shouldn’t be seeing? If the answer is yes, then there is a compromise happening in your relationship with the Lord.

Acknowledging our sin is the first step. If you are having a hard time identifying exactly what it is that you need to confess, humbly ask the Lord to show you and bring clarity to what it is that needs to be “cut” out of your life. Many times sin can seem subtle, even harmless, yet it can be spiritually debilitating (bitterness, anger, gossip, pride, etc…). We need to go before the Lord daily and ask Him to reveal our sin to us and show us what needs to go. When we do this regularly, we have a much better chance at staying clean and not waking up one day to find that baby elephant has grown into a super-sized monstrosity!

The next step is ownership of that particular habit or offense (saying “I did it”) and then confession by way of the mouth. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and Just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” That’s a promise. It’s pretty simple, but it requires action on our part. God wants us to do the “cutting” so He can step in and do the cleansing.

As we speak to sin (that pink elephant) and tell it to leave the room (confess and ask God for forgiveness), the room becomes open, clean and prepared for deeper, freer, and closer connection with our Heavenly Father.